1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage medium having a game program stored thereon and a game apparatus, and more particularly to a storage medium having stored thereon a game program and a game apparatus for which a pointing device is used as an input device.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there is a game in which a player causes an object to perform a predetermined action such as attacking another object. The object is caused to perform the predetermined action in the following methods.
For example, in a game such as an ARPG (action roll playing game), when a player object is moved so as to be very close to an opponent object, a player presses an attack button, whereby, for example, a player character attacks the opponent character with a sword.
Further, there is a following method. A player performs an operation for moving a player object having a plurality of first objects while operating a controller stick so as to aim a cursor at a target. While aiming the cursor at the target, the player presses a button, whereby the player object throws one of the plurality of first objects at the target. The remaining first objects automatically start to perform a predetermined action, such as attacking the target, according to what the target is. (For example, see “Pikmin Book”, the extra number of Famitsu, ENTERBRAIN, INC. pages 36 to 37, November, 2001)
Further, disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-290886 is a sight line control method. The sight line control method disclosed therein is not used for performing the aforementioned attack and the like. The sight line control method is, for example, used for a soccer game in which when a distance between a player character and a ball satisfies a predetermined condition, the player character turns its eyes on the ball.
However, the aforementioned game system has the following problems.
Firstly, when a player desires to cause a player object to attack an opponent object, the player moves the player object so as to approach the opponent object and presses an attack button. This series of operations may not be necessarily appropriate depending on a game content.
Further, when a method is used in which a player character throws objects which the player character has so as to automatically start a predetermined action, an operation for turning a cursor to a target is required before the predetermined action automatically starts. Therefore, depending on a game content, the player will be bothered with the operation for turning the cursor to the target, thereby deteriorating controllability for the player.
Alternatively, in the sight line control method, when the distance between the player character and an object satisfies a predetermined condition, the player character may start to perform the aforementioned predetermined action without turning its eyes on the object. In this case, however, as soon as the distance satisfies the predetermined condition, an attack operation or the like is started. Therefore, the operation may be performed against the player's intention, thereby resulting in controllability for the player being deteriorated.